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May 5, 2007
Section:
Edition: Final
Page: A2

If your tastes in theater include the political, cloaked in the guise of the fantastic and make-believe, then perhaps you might enjoy an evening with "The Dragon", the latest offering by Appleseed Productions.

This politically-charged, serio-comic piece by Russian playwright Yevgeny Schwartz (1897-1958) is a not-so-thinly-veiled commentary on modern political "dragons" of the playwright's time such as Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and the repressive Soviet State of the time. Suffice it to say that even though the play is rooted in folklore and fairy tales, its satiric and mocking message relative to corrupt power replacing corrupt power, forced it underground in 1944 after only three performances.

Perhaps somewhat due to translation, the play is fraught with long, tedious spates of dialogue that seem to often go nowhere, as well as numerous characters that appear for seemingly strange reasons. A piece such as this, however, demands much patience and attention from the audience, especially at the beginning. It took me a ways into Act 2 before I was able to catch up to the play's rhythms and sensibilities. Like much in the Russian theater, its framework seems more free form and less literal than what we are more accustomed to.

Technically, the piece is filled with a battery of theatrical trickery from the effective use of an echo chamber for the various personifications of the dragon, to extensive use of ultra-red lighting and a clever fan and fabric contraption that creates the illusion of flames.

There are several noteworthy performances in the play, chief among them being Ted Davenport as a wacked-out town mayor who becomes very crafty as conditions in town change. His performance is a joy from his forceful outcries to his semi-insane mutterings.

Binaifer Dabu as the omniscient house cat demonstrates outstanding physicality in her feline-like moves about the stage, and Roy vanNorstrand's Donkey played as a sly vendor of dry goods helps catapult much of the disguised seriousness at the root of the drama.

Paul Gundersen, Rebecca Brown, and Mark Wright as the Sovereign, Warrior, and Cleric, respectively, interestingly and effectively convey the various attractions of the Dragon.

William Edward White directs this esoteric work, while also effectively conveying the diabolical business of the prison warden with a Peter Lorre suavity.

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